Putting the blog on pause until the end of the month. Be back then with a review of my year in books (really nothing), TV and movies (too much), and music (a bit of this and that). Also I’m working on retooling the blog in the new year. See you all after Christmas.
Every Thursday, or Friday or Saturday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.
As it is Thanksgiving, I am almost obligated to share three good things, being the theme of the day. Today, however, I’d like to give thanks for one major thing: my wife is not preparing to go to the hospital for a very serious heart issue that could, and almost did, kill her. The condition – the short version, her mitral valve in her left lower heart not working correctly – necessitated her being in the hospital for the month of December last year as doctors and nurses almost literally resurrected her.
The longer version, for those with questions or don’t remember or know about, I refer you to her CaringBridge website we set up to keep family and friends updated on her stay at the hospital.
One year later, her mitral valve is working correctly and while she still has primary lymphedema and lipedema (Google, please – it’s too long to explain and you can go down your own rabbit hole), she is alive and kicking.
She just ended a two-week vacation during which she was able to visit her dad, stepmom, and sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces in Maryland and just returned to work last night. We had early Thanksgiving with those on her shift and significant others, with Kim making the majority of the side dishes.
Every Thursday, or Friday or Saturday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.
Tomorrow, Kim and I are celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. We both are off for the entire weekend; Kim, ending a two week vacation on Tuesday. We had thought about going on Sunday to a Mexican restaurant about an hour away, but decided last night, we probably would just hang out all weekend with TV and movies we’ve been meaning to catch up on. We’re silencing our phones except for calls from immediate family who might want to wish us happy anniversary Sunday.
Also influencing our decision was we unexpectedly went out to dinner last night. It wasn’t planned, but when I went to get gelato pints at a local eatery, the chef there was doing ramen, only his second time. With the place, having a small kitchen, and us not ordering ahead, we had to wait about an hour but it was good.
Oh, yes, we still got the gelato pints and will enjoy them today and maybe tomorrow, although not likely. In fact, as I’m writing this early, I think I’ll go have some now for breakfast.
Yep, that’s the kind of day today was for me. I tossed on two different shoes. I only noticed when I went to tighten the Velcro on the right one this afternoon. If nothing else, it gave our assistant director at the library a laugh – and the employees at the post office too when I went to take books there for interlibrary loan.
For National Poetry Month, I’m sharing poems each day, one that I’ve written followed by whatever one from three sites that share a poem a day that strikes my fancy that day.
Today’s poem is another about my childhood. Initially I wasn’t going to include it, along with another one tomorrow, but here, late in the month, I’ve changed my mind. The poem is best read in desktop and sometimes lansdcape on your browser of choice.
Waiting For The School Bus
Sometimes it was as heavy as
the bookbags we toted, the trombone cases
Ed and I lugged up the stairs.
Other times words filled the spaces between us
until a passing tractor-trailer cut off our sentences,
and we fell back into it.
Twenty or more years later, I shut off the radio
on my way to work and listen to that sweet absence:
a burden I gladly bear.
Today’s poem from another website is “Speakers” by Dimitri Reyes on Poets.org, the Academy of American Poets website.
Every Thursday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to share in the comments your three good things too, if you want. I was introduced to thinking on three good things for the week by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who lists hers every Sunday on her blog.
Today is the first day of Spring. That is No. 1. While winter is still hanging on here, predicted temperatures for the next weeks: 40s in the day and 20s at night, at least there is hope. I’ll take any hope we can get at this point.
No. 2 is Kim and I are going to see singer Dar Williams Saturday night in our small town. We’ve known for a few months and Kim has gone and caught up with her latest albums in preparation. We’ve also been invited to a table at the concert. The venue where we’re seeing her has tables you can sit at and I believe, bonus, alcohol.
No. 3 is that Kim is off for three days, starting tomorrow. I happen to work Sunday but we’re off together tomorrow night, all day Saturday, and Sunday night. It’s supposed to be rainy on Saturday, so just a day in and that’s OK too. We’ll be having a Chinese takeout, as has been our custom when she is off so that will “keep us” for food for the weekend.
I’ll leave you with one of our favorite Dar Williams songs:
Here are two poems for you today. One is from Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein; the other, poet Marjorie Saiser, with both poems inspired by the planet Venus. The first I came across from a newsletter from author and podcaster Dan Harris; the second, blogger Anne Bennett, who shared Saiser’s poem on her blog on Sunday. I then shared with her Goldstein’s poem and now both with you. Maybe they will resonate with you as well.
Venus in the Western Sky
My companion in its brightest month
A diamond cool radiance
Lingers above the horizon
Reminding me (in the words of the poet)
To care
And not to care
As all the earth-bound madness
Engulfs our lives.
Steady, faithful
A light in the darkness
As the day
Morphs into night
-- Joseph Goldstein
When Life Seems a To-Do List
When the squares of the week fill
with musts and shoulds,
when I swim in the heaviness of it,
the headlines, the fear and hate,
then with luck, something like a slice
of moon will arrive clean as bone and
beside it on that dark slate
a star will lodge near the cusp
and with luck I will have you
to see it with, the two of us,
fools stepping out
the backdoor in our pajamas.
Is that Venus? -- I think so --
Let's call it Venus,
cuddling up to the moon
and there are stars further away
sending out rays that will not reach us
in our lifetimes but we are choosing,
before the chaos starts up again,
to stand in this particular light.
-- Marjorie Saiser
I’m catching up on some of my my favorite podcasts today and I thought I’d share with you what I’m listening to. As I am posting this, I only have listened to the first one and am in the midst of the second one. These two are for me useful. I can’t speak if the others will be or not yet. Feel free to listen to what might help you in your own journey.
Addendum: I am pivoting and not listening to all of these today because I’m already into second one and it’s a lot to contemplate. It’s not bad, but it’s a lot.
…on WordPress.com and in October will be my 20th year of blogging, which I began on Blogger.
I began my first blog, Just A (Running) Fool, to chronicle my journey to reach a marathon by the time I was 40. In September 2007, I finished the 25-mile Bald Eagle Mountain Megatransect, which, while short in distance of a marathon, was at least as exhausting physically, mentally and spiritually as a marathon, and, in essence, completed that goal.
I began Journeying with the Saints to chronicle a journey through The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola that began in September 2007 and ended May 2008. There, I reflected on the Exercises first and then, after I was done with them, on other devotions with a special emphasis on the works of the saints – from Ignatius to St. John of the Cross and St. Benedict, to name a few – as well as sharing resources for devotions and the Exercises. Even though my wife and I are no longer Catholic, I still find Ignatius’ Examen a worthwhile exercise to reflect on the week or even the day.
In early 2008, I began a blog to chronicle my reading on a blogging platform that eventually died. At the end of March that same year, I started an unfinished person (in an unfinished universe) with the idea of the blog serving as a portal to the other three blogs, connecting them all thematically: body, running; mind, reading; and soul, devotions. Then in April, I began a blog that didn’t fit into the body, mind, soul paradigm and was just for fun called Unfinished Ramblings, later Unfinished Rambler. Also that month, I began another reading blog, Just A (Reading) Fool, to chronicle my reading past, present and future.
I went through several iterations of blogs with the words “unfinished” and “still unfinished” and even landed on WordPress.org for a while. Finally (?) I ended up here, as I say on my About page, to “send you transmissions (messages) from this unfinished person’s life, as I continue my journey to become less and less of ‘an unfinished person in this unfinished universe’ and a little more complete than when I started 55 years ago.” I also hope to help you become a more complete person on your journey too.
Every Thursday, I share three good things from today, in the past week, and/or in the week or weeks to come, to focus on what is good. I encourage you to join me and share in the comments, if you want, or in your own journal, or both, whatever works for you.
This week is off the top of my head, as I’ve been running errands most of the day and didn’t draft this yesterday or earlier in the week as I often do. So, here we go:
Author’s Note: Variations of “3 Good Things Thursday” can be found across the Interwebs and to which I was introduced by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz who does hers every Sunday as part of her Sunday Salon post.
Transmissions from the Northern Outpost 